With key risks on the horizon, portfolio defense may be more important than ever. The portfolio managers behind PIMCO Total Return offer an inside look at the process that has fueled the core bond strategy for decades - and how they are managing the strategy to prepare for what’s ahead.

Barring a zombie apocalypse or a sudden spontaneous collapse in asset prices, PIMCO expects the global expansion to continue in 2018. Yet investors should prepare for both the consequences of policy shifts and the opportunities presented in more difficult market conditions.

Please join us for a discussion on different approaches to add downside portfolio protection in the current investing environment of lower yields, low volatility and generally neutral or rich valuations. As many investors perceive traditional fixed income solutions to be less attractive in providing downside protection and the cost of outright hedging options seems high, many discussions revolve around other portfolio diversifiers and options to improve resilience of portfolios in the downside scenario. The session will focus on best ways to protect client portfolios and pros and cons of various approaches.

Opinions in the active-passive investment debate have drifted poles apart over recent years. We revisit this discussion by contrasting equity and bonds. We look at performance numbers and find that, unlike their stock counterparts, active bond mutual funds have largely outperformed their median passive peers over our sample period. We offer conjectures as to why bonds and stocks differ. Differences may be due to:

•The large proportion of noneconomic bond investors
•Benchmark rebalancing frequency and turnover
•Structural tilts in fixed income space
•The wide range of financial derivatives available to active bond managers
•Security-level credit research and new issue concessions

In short, informational efficiencies make beating equity markets difficult. But we believe that's not the case with fixed income, where noneconomic and passive investors pursue agendas that are not exclusively about total return
Put simply, bonds are different.

Joachim Fels, Global Economic Advisor, and Portfolio Strategist Olivia Albrecht discuss PIMCO’s forecast for global growth and inflation, highlighting the reasons we have more confidence that the global economic expansion will strengthen and broaden over the cyclical horizon.

Emerging market investors initially reacted to the surprise result of the U.S. presidential election with a sharp pullback – just as the sector seemed to be staging a comeback. Despite continuing policy uncertainties, PIMCO’s outlook for the asset class is far more nuanced.

On Tuesday 28 June, PIMCO hosted a conference call with London-based Portfolio Managers Andrew Balls, Mike Amey and Philippe Bodereau, discussing the investment outlook and questions in the wake of the historic Brexit referendum in the UK on 23 June 2016.

With interest rates at or below zero in many developed economies, investors are broadening their search for positive-returning assets that can help diversify equity risk. Fixed income assets, whose prices traditionally rally as equity markets fall, are seeing reduced usage in this role, because many investors believe interest rates have limited scope to fall further. The webinar will discuss the pros and cons of using trend-following strategies as an alternative way to diversify equity risk.

With some stabilization in the energy markets, investors have started to look for energy-related opportunities. The podcast will focus on best ways to take advantage of the opportunity in the secular growth in the North American energy sector by investing in the equity and debt of publicly traded master limited partnerships (“MLPs”) and related energy companies.

PIMCO is one of the world’s premier fixed income investment managers. With our launch in 1971 in Newport Beach, California, PIMCO introduced investors to a total return approach to fixed income investing. In the 45+ years since, we have continued to bring innovation and expertise to our partnership with clients seeking the best investment solutions. Today we have offices across the globe and 2,200 professionals united by a single purpose: creating opportunities for investors in every environment.